September Bullet Journal Setup 2019

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Bullet journaling is my secret weapon to staying organised. If you don’t know what a Bullet journal is read this post ‘Why you NEED a bullet journal’

September for me brings warmer weather and a kind of nostalgia for my childhood for some strange reason, so that is not even remotely relevant but its just how I feel. Anyway, in my bullet journal setup this month I haven’t got an overall theme. I am letting every log and collection evolve into whatever it wants. This month I have also decided to start tracking my finances so have included an expenses and finances collection.

Monthly Log

I am now in the habit of keeping a bullet journal monthly log every month just as an overview of the month. I find it useful to refer back to when I am starting each week to see what needs to be added in to the weekly spread. I’m very happy about how this months turned out. I just used a pink Staedler fineliner and some washi tape and i think it turned out well.

My September Monthly View
@lyssalouboley

To Do List

I have found a must for my bullet journal is a stand alone to-do list for the month. For all those tasks that don’t have a set date they need to be done. Again with the pink Staedler fineliner and not much else.

Brain Dump’s are a Must

Sometimes your mind can be working overtime and you can’t focus on the task at hand. To try and get some focus back I use brain dumps. I always have multiples of my brain dumps throughout the month in various styles. Essentially these pages or collections are where you can “dump” the contents of your mind, uncensored, and then either sort through or move on and hopefully focus better on the task at hand. It’s helpful when I’m feeling overwhelmed just to take a pen and my bullet journal and write without stopping to organise or censor my thoughts and then I will go over it and try and make sense of it. I have included a photo below of a brain dump that @letsliveandlearn did and how she has analysed it nicely.

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I don't know what it is about this month but I feel so overwhelmed and like I am behind on EVERYTHING—especially housework 🙃 I shared this before, but since I needed to do it again today, I thought I would re-share. This is exactly what I do when I'm feeling overwhelmed with "to dos"—it helps me refocus, prioritize and give my life some direction 🤣 ▫️ 1️⃣"Brain dump"- list everything that’s on your mind. It might be tasks, ideas, important dates, etc. Anything that is "cluttering" your mind—write it down 🧠 ▫️ 2️⃣ Prioritize & highlight- go through your list and start prioritizing all tasks. I started with a pink highlighter and highlighted the most urgent tasks. Then used an orange highlighter for tasks that need to be done in the next few days. A yellow highlighter was for tasks that should be done this week if possible. Not all things ended up highlighted and that's good! Those are things that I can refer back to if needed or do sometime in the future 🌈 ▫️ 3️⃣ Sticky notes- this step is optional, but I like doing it because it allows me to see what I need to focus on. You can also remove sticky notes as tasks are completed or move up sticky notes as they become more urgent ↕️ ▫️ Obviously you could just use a regular to do list, but this method really helps motivate me and makes me feel less stressed when I'm feeling overwhelmed so I thought I would share! Have a great week!! 💗

A post shared by Shelley (@letsliveandlearn) on Jul 21, 2019 at 4:41pm PDT

An example of sorting through a brain dump

Mood Tracker Love

An essential collection in my bullet journal is a mood tracker. I have bipolar and it has been essential for tracking my moods and finding patterns that I didn’t know existed until I started using one. I love making them into pictures and seeing how they end up at the end of the month. There are just so many things you can do with trackers its great! If you would like to see more about self care go and read my post about using the bullet journal for self-care HERE

@marthasjournal
My september mood tracker

Weekly & Daily Logs

Soooo. I keep a hybrid weekly/daily log in a slightly bigger than A5 Nuuna notebook and I’m not really happy with it. I am experimenting with different layouts and when I find one I like you will all see it. The stickers are by Stella Beau Sticker Co and she has an amazing range of everything you can think of including curse words.

The Keep in Touch List

I struggle with keeping in touch with my nearest and dearest and I saw this collection somewhere and thought ‘yep i need that’. I have all the people that are important to me listed on this page so I can periodically check and see if I need to call someone and see how they are.

Finances

Now to the finances section of my bullet journal, and the scariest part for me. I hate having to keep track of money but If I ever want to get anywhere I need to know about these things even if its only the basics. Starting off I have created a basic expense tracker in my bullet journal. I haven’t prettied it up as I wanted to concentrate on the form and function of the page over aesthetics. This tracker is a log of everything I spend during the month, so that I can see where I can save money.

The next collection page is my September finances page. This is where I track our income and our regular bills. I totally expect the finance pages in my bullet journal to morph as I add to them but at this stage I’m just letting myself get into the habit of recording expenses and income.

The End for now

That is it for my bullet journal set up for this month. I have never done a month in review page before but I’m planning on starting this month so will post it when I finish it. As alway please feel free to contact me or leave a comment.

Recommendations

Bullet Journal Notebooks:

Rhodia Goalbook comes set up for bullet journaling and is fountain pen friendly
Official Bullet Journal Leuchtturm1917 built for bullet journaling by the creator
Leuchtturm1917
Nuuna I love the funky covers on these books
Mumsy and Bub – This company makes beautiful vegan travelers notebooks. I have 3 of them 2 A5 and 1 B6 sized.